Category: Latin American Studies

An Excerpt from “Drug Lords, Cowboys, and Desperadoes” by Rafael Acosta Morales

April 14, 2021

Drug Lords, Cowboys, and Desperadoes examines the relationship between affect, narrative, and violence surrounding three historical archetypes—social bandits (often associated with the drug trade), cowboys, and desperadoes—and how these narratives create affective loops that recreate violent structures in the Mexican American frontier. Acosta Morales analyzes narrative in literary, cinematic, and musical form, examining works by Américo […]

Book Provides the First Study of Colonial Textile Arts in the Spanish American Church

February 26, 2021

When Catholic churches were built in the New World in the sixteenth century, they were furnished with rich textiles known in Spanish as “church clothing.” These textile ornaments covered churches’ altars, stairs, floors, and walls. Vestments clothed priests and church attendants, and garments clothed statues of saints. The value attached to these textiles, their constant […]

An Interview with Maya Stanfield-Mazzi, author of “Clothing the New World Church”

February 3, 2021

Maya Stanfield-Mazzi is an associate professor of art history at the University of Florida. She recently answered our questions about her new book, Clothing the New World Church: Liturgical Textiles of Spanish America, 1520–1820 (February 15, 2021), published by Notre Dame Press on February 15, 2021. While there are several books on pre-Columbian textiles, Clothing […]

“Quill and Cross in the Borderlands” receives International Latino Book Awards

September 14, 2020

Anna M. Nogar’s book, Quill and Cross in the Borderlands: Sor María de Ágreda and the Lady in Blue, 1628 to the Present, received two awards from the 2020 International Latino Book Awards: first place in the Best History Book category and first place in the Best Religious Book category. The International Latino Book Awards are the largest Latino cultural […]

“Quill and Cross in the Borderlands” wins Honorable Mention for the Thomas J. Lyon Award

October 10, 2019

Anna M. Nogar’s book, Quill and Cross in the Borderlands: Sor María de Ágreda and the Lady in Blue, 1628 to the Present, received an Honorable Mention for the Thomas J. Lyon Award at the Western Literature Association’s annual conference in September. This award honors books that are outstanding scholarly studies on the literature and culture of the American […]

New biography highlights David Gaus ND’84 who transformed Latin American healthcare

March 30, 2019

Tony Hiss’s new book, Long Road from Quito: Transforming Health Care in Rural Latin America, tells the fascinating story of David Gaus, Notre Dame Class of ’84, who has been working for decades to improve health care accessibility in impoverished communities. Gaus is co-founder, with his mentor Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., of Andean Health and Development (AHD), an organization dedicated to […]